This gives fraudsters another avenue to get hold of your sensitive data. Even if you don’t fall for phishing emails, it’s now possible someone at your tax preparer’s office could take the bait and unwittingly hand over your sensitive data to criminals.

Avoid being defrauded by phishing

The best way to ensure criminals don’t steal your tax refund is to file your return ASAP.

The IRS isn’t going to cut you two refund checks. So, once that money is in your hands, it’s far tougher for a scammer to trick the IRS into sending the refund to the scammer instead of you.